The block of Midtown that is today’s focus has always been a mystery to one of our readers. “On the NW corner of 35th Terrace and Genessee is a nice, solid red brick four-unit apartment building,” Diane Capps wrote. “Near the top, on the front of the building is a limestone slab that is engraved with W.P. CHERRY BLOCK. I’ve always wondered about that!”

It is a short block with only a handful of buildings, laying between State Line Road and Roanoke Park. In addition to the red apartment building, the block holds a row of four bungalows also on Genessee and a single small home fronting Bell Street.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at the 1940 tax assessment photos of each block in Midtown. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them). This week, we tackle the block between Genessee and Bell and between 35th Street and 35th Terrace (previously known as Christine Street).

A recent view of the block with the red apartment building and other homes along Genessee Street.

Who was W.P. Cherry and why was this his block?

A 1907 Tuttle & Pike map shows the undeveloped block. To the south and east, new subdivisions were being laid out around Roanoke Park which the city began acquiring in 1901. This block and the one to the west of it were as yet unsubdivided and were owned by W.P. Cherry.

The best evidence for why the apartment bore the name W.P. Cherry lies in the ownership records of the block. Sometime before 1907, a prominent businessman named William Prather Cherry came to own the entire block and the one just to the west.

Cherry, who lived from 1854 to 1921, came to Kansas City from Carthage, Illinois with his wife, the former Emma Grigsby. Associated first with the Lombard Investment Company, W.P. became owner of the Foster-Cherry Live Stock Commission, selling cattle and hogs in Kansas City’s booming stockyards. Cherry later formed a new company called Cherry-Tilden Live Stock in 1903, when the Kansas City Star called both Tilden and Cherry, “men of means, ability, and influence.” When Cherry died, he was secretary of the Pioneer Trust Company.

There are no records showing the Cherry family, which included Emma and two daughters, ever living at the 35th and Genessee location. They appear to have lived at 29th and Prospect in 1907 and on Benton in 1910. Cherry and his wife, however, were active in real estate, buying and selling a number of properties in Kansas City between the mid-1850s and 1895.

As far as the people who moved into W.P. Cherry’s block after it was developed, newspapers of the day give us little insight. However, there is one tidbit of history: at 3504 Genessee in 1930, 27 different breeds of pigeon – both “fancies and utilities” – were for sale.The slideshow below shows the other homes on the block as they looked in 1940.

This 1909-1950 Sanborn map shows the block after the apartments and small homes had been built.

The slideshow below shows the other homes on the block as they looked in 1940.

Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

Perhaps the best-known address on today’s block, from 44th to 45th and from Belleview to Madison Avenues, is The Point, a popular local bar and grill. From as early as 1918 through the 1930s, the buildings that house The Point served the neighborhood as a drug store and grocery.

A 1930s snapshot of one Midtown block highlights its transformation from a neighborhood of working-class families to a commercial corridor along a major traffic route.

A 1909-1950 Sunburn map of the block, showing the numerous cottages that lined both Madison and Belleview Avenues.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. Although those photos are NOT available for this block, other historical records offer a glimpse of how the block has changed from the 1930s to today.

The first newspaper report of the block shows its more rural nature in 1904, when Robert L. White of 4400 Madison asked for help locating a colt that had escaped from his property there. Later that decade, records show the family of Jacob Alexander Wagner, a Russian immigrant who worked a woodworker at the Rust Sash and Door Company, settled at 4418 Madison. And a seven-room cottage, similar to those which would later line Belleview and Madison Avenues, was advertised for sale in 1909 for $2740.

The 1920 census: a solid working class neighborhood

By the time the 1920 census was recorded, the block had filled in with more of those cottages, filled with families who rented or owned their properties. Several carpenters, electricians, a butter maker, and a shoe repair man were among household heads that year. Most lived with their wives and children; often with extended families sharing the modest homes. Here’s who the 1920 census shows living on the block:

44th Street

921 Thomas H. Smith, a doctor, rented this home with his wife Anna, son, son-in-law, daughter, and grandson.

919 Chauncey A. Spaulding, who ran in a retail grocery in the building, rented here with his wife Katie.

915 Edmund Eade, a shoe repair man, rented this home with his wife Melissa and a boarder.

A few of the remaining cottages on Madison at W. 45th.

Madison

4400 Fred Grauberger, a shoemaker born in Russia, owned this home where he lived with his wife, Mary, 2 sons and a daughter.

4402 Owen B. Wylie, a mail carrier, rented with this home with wife Nettie and daughter Dorothy.

4406 Levi Pennington, an engineer, owned this home with his wife Mary and son Chester.

4408 Bart Tabun, a house carpenter, rented here with his wife Eva. Luther Tull, a house painter, also lived here with his wife Katie and daughter Mildred.

4110 William Robinson, a house carpenter, owned this home with his wife Effie, son, and father-in-law.

4414 Harry Othick, an office worker, lived here with his wife Grace, two sons and sister, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law.

4420 Charley F. Gordon, who was in real estate, owed this home with his wife, son-in-law, daughter, and two sons.

4426 Sara Ogden owned this home, shared with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

4430 Arvid E. Ostlin, a powerhouse fireman, rented this home with his wife, two sons, father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

4444 Charles E. Smith, a mail carrier, owned this home with his wife, son and one boarder.

4448 Lewis Lilovitch, a Russian immigrant and druggist, rented this home with his wife Mary, son, daughter, and brother-in-law.

45th

908 Francis W. Hanson, a shop worker, owned this house and lived with his wife Anna and daughter Francis.

910 Joseph Erwin, who worked in a butter factory, rented here with his wife Kathline and two sons.

A recent view of Belleview with a few remaining homes surrounded by commercial buildings.

Belleview

4447 Clarence Hopkins, a hardware shipping clerk, rented this home with his wife Josie, a son, a daughter and a boarder.

Albert Wolf, an electric salesman, owned this home with his wife Helena, a cousin and a niece.

4443 William E. Evans, an electrical contractor, owned this home with his wife Mabel and daughter Hattie.

A recent aerial photo of the block.

4439 Oliver Johnson, a railroad inspector, owned this home with his wife Mary and daughter Edna.

4435 Theodore Fitschen, a baker, owned this home with his wife Lydia.Warren C. Wade, a stock keeper, rented this home with his wife Fairy and three daughters.

4429 William Vancleave, a hotel clerk, rented this home with his wife Margaret, two sons and a daughter.

4427 James A. Hoyt, a shop electrician, owned this home with his wife Edna, and two daughters.

4425 Charles C. Albecker, a salesman, rented here with his wife Kate, a son and a boarder.

4419 Allen L. Sissom, a butter wagon salesman, owned this home where he lived with his wife Sadia and daughter Madeline.

4415 Max Gunninger, a railroad car repairman, owned this home with his wife Mary and daughter Mary and stepson Joe Geier.

4411 Albert G. Nelson, a meat cutter, owned this home his wife Nellie, two sons, two nieces, a nephew and a boarder.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

Although the buildings that once lined Thirty-first Street and wrapped around the corner on Holmes are gone now, this area was a thriving business and entertainment area in the 1920s through the 1940s. This building which stood at 3110 Holmes in this 1940 photo housed a variety of businesses during those years.

This block of Midtown once thrived as a commercial center, with businesses such as pharmacies, restaurants and beauty shops serving the surrounding neighborhoods.

Although a recent satellite image shows only a large parking lot at the corner of Thirty-first and Holmes, that location was bustling in earlier days. From the 1920s to the 1940s, 31st Street between Holmes and Gillham Road was packed with a tight row of storefronts, put to various purposes. During those decades, the tenants includes a bank, a drug store, beauty shops and the Wilson Coffee Shop, where Maud Wilson became a local celebrity during prohibition for smashing up a saloon just around the corner with an ax.

31st Street shops in 1940.

The largest business on the block was Borden’s Home Dairy, which moved into its “most modern” plant at 3112 Holmes in 1939. Another popular Kansas City business on the block was Kate Hinkle’s French Laundry, which specialized in “delicate, lovely things whose laundering requires a particular technique, fancy quilts and blankets, curtains, linens and centerpieces.”

When these photos were taken in 1940, Anheuser-Busch had space on Gillham Road. The American Chair Rental Company served the community from its location at 3107 Gillham. And that same block housed a variety of automobile dealers over the years.

The slideshow bellows shows the rest of the buildings on the block as they looked in 1940.

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As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them).

Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

]]>http://midtownkcpost.com/do-you-remember-this-block-from-31st-to-linwood-gillham-to-holmes/feed/0Do you remember this block of Wyandotte and Central in Old Hyde Park?http://midtownkcpost.com/do-you-remember-this-block-of-wyandotte-and-central-in-old-hyde-park/
http://midtownkcpost.com/do-you-remember-this-block-of-wyandotte-and-central-in-old-hyde-park/#respondMon, 19 Sep 2016 11:03:46 +0000http://midtownkcpost.com/?p=25878

Large homes in Old Hyde Park were well-suited to families around 1910, when many families still had servants who helped run their households. By 1940, this block between 36th and 37th, Wyandotte to Central, had become much more densely populated, with apartment buildings filling in vacant lots and large homes being converted to rooming houses.

Kansas City changed a lot in the early 1900s. For example, the block of Old Hyde Park between 36th and 37th, from Central to Wyandotte, was home to well-off families in 1910, but by 1940, some of the older homes on the block had been replaced by apartment buildings, and many of the homes had been converted to boarding houses to accommodate the growing population of the city.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them). Today, the block between 36th and 37th, from Wyandotte to Central.

This chart (scroll through it to see the whole block) shows the changes that took place between 1910 and 1940. The chart lists those families and their servants which were listed in the 1910 census of the block. The servants came from various backgrounds, and were listed by their race and nationality. The column to the right shows how the block had changed in 1940, when many of the large homes had become boarding houses or where families had taken in lodgers to help with the housing shortage in the city.

The slideshow below shows the houses on the block as they looked in 1940.

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Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

South Hyde Park appeared to be a neighborhood full of children, captured playing on porches, in front yards and exploring the neighborhood in a set of 1940 photos. These three seemed happy to poise for the camera that day at their home near the corner of 43rd and Holmes.

Most of the buildings on the block were single-family homes, often bungalows. The exception was the luxury apartment building at the corner of 42nd and Holmes.

The South Hyde Park area of Midtown developed rapidly after 1905, spurred by new city water service and the expansion of streetcar lines to newly-built middle class homes. The block of today’s focus, from 42nd to 43rd, from Holmes to Charlotte, is composed of modest homes which still look much like they did when built more than 100 year ago.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them).

Not much history has been recorded so far about this block. But looking at the photos from 1940, it is clear the area was a popular place to raise children.

The slideshow below shows the rest of the houses on the block as they looked in 1940.

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Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

The annual Volkerfest celebration is coming up this weekend in Midtown’s Roanoke Park. The festival, started in 2015, was created to showcase the musicians and artists in Downtown, the Crossroads, Midtown and other areas of Kansas City’s urban core..

The Midtown KC Post asked Volkerfest Event Planner Melissa Martin to give us an overview of this year’s festival and what the Volker neighborhood hopes the event will accomplish.

Many neighborhoods in Kansas City have events that bring their residents together, but you say Volker created this festival to bring together local artists, musicians, restaurants, and businesses while strengthening our community. What was the idea behind that theme and why did it seem to make sense for Volker?

I came up with this idea for a festival a few years ago. I wanted to celebrate our neighborhood along with all of those surrounding it. I have never lived in such a vibrant neighborhood as Volker.

I saw that neighbors were asking for a social event to come together and call their own. That is basically how the idea was born. I brought the festival to the Volker Nieghborhood Association board where I am currently the social coordinator. They jumped on board and we have just hit the ground running. We were thrilled then to have The Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board of Directors understand our vision and partner with us.

Volker has a strong sense of community, as do all our surrounding neighborhoods. We are home owners, renters, artists, business owners, musicians, and families all combined. We are proud to start a festival to highlight individuals that make us one of the strongest communities in Kansas City.

What kind of response have you gotten from local artists and local residents about Volkerfest?

I will be honest, I was nervous to see if people would even show up and how it would all play out last year. I was pleasantly surprised by the support from local neighborhoods and from artists. Some of our vendors have never shown their work before – let alone been able to sell it. They were thrilled to get the opportunity to use this festival as their start.

Residents didn’t even let me think about “Will there be a second Volkerfest?” At the Volkerfest cleanup last year, I had people coming up to me thanking the volunteers and saying they wanted to be involved for year number two. That’s when I knew we had something special.

Will you be expanding the festival this year?

We are expanding this year. We will have over 40 vendors showcasing their craft and talent compared to the 30 last year. We have also added a second stage to highlight more local musicians. This means there will never be downtime so music will continue around the clock. We have also expanded our kids activities so everyone in the family has something to look forward to this year.

Details

June 25 from 3 p.m .to 9 p.m.

Festival will be held on the field north of the Westport Roanoke Community Center at 3601 Roanoke Road and in the community center

Activities for children will be provided by Tikitum Sensory Science Lab, Imagination Playground, Stone Lion Puppets, and a visit from the Kansas City Fire Department.

Art/talent/food/drink will be available for purchase.

A bicycle valet will be provided at no cost.

Dogs are welcome as long as they are on a leash.

Organizers ask that no outside food or drink be brought to the festival in order to support our local vendors, as the festival is free to attend.

For many community members, a meeting last night at The Loretto was a first chance to see the inside of the historic building, formerly a day and boarding school run by the Sisters of Loretto. A developer discussed plans for a boutique hotel, which could include event space in the former chapel.

Neighbors, tenants and former students of The Loretto on West 39th Street crowded into the building last evening to hear plans to turn it into a boutique hotel. For prospective developer Matt Comfort, that means “a place that really feels like Kansas City” and connects people already living and working along the West 39th Street corridor to those coming to experience Kansas City.

A presentation and question-and-answer session sponsored by the Volker Neighborhood Association drew people from surrounding neighborhoods interested in getting a look at the historic building and hearing about plans for the future.

For Shannon Hennessy, it was like stepping back in time, to when she went to school at The Loretto in 1965 when she was 10. She remembers the nuns in their habits and their strong focus on providing a good education for the students. She’s somewhat regretful that the building is no longer used for education, but says, “I’m just glad someone is going to fix it up and not tear it down.”

Volker President Susan Kysela introduced Comfort of Behringer Lodging Group, who will be working with Midtown’s Hufft Architects on the project.

“The Loretto is one of the iconic structures of the neighborhood. We want to ensure it is preserved and well-maintained,” Kysela said.

Comfort explained that his Dallas-based group, which also owns the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, the Belmont in Dallas, and other hotels across the country, has not officially taken ownership of the building, but wanted to explain the project and get input from neighbors at the front-end of planning.

Kansas City needs a signature hotel

The Loretto, 1111 W. 39th, is currently apartments and event space.

“We came to Kansas City and we thought it had a tremendous soul and character,” Comfort told the crowd.

Behringer was also impressed with the thriving West 39th Street, the number of businesses moving to Kansas City, Google Fiber, the Sprint Center and the growth of local hospitals. He said he and his partner spent a lot of time studying other local hotels, and think they have identified a niche for what he calls an “upper up-scale type of hotel like the Sorella or Raphael.”

“There is a lot of pride in Kansas City ‘but it doesn’t have a prototypical hotel,” he said. “We said there is not a place that really feels like Kansas City. This (the Loretto) feels like a place where people really live.”

Comfort also told the audience he wants the new hotel to serve both out-of-towners and the neighborhood.

“We don’t want this to just be a place for tourists. We’d like the tourists who come here to meet the people who live here. And it will be interesting for the people who live here to meet the visitors,” he said.

Preliminary concepts for the boutique hotel

Comfort predicted his company might take ownership of The Loretto in late summer or early fall, and estimates renovations would take 18-24 months. Early concepts for the six-acre parcel include 120 hotel rooms and a restaurant that would be open to both hotel guests and the community. Behringer is also considering adding a pool and fitness center on the grounds, which may also be available to nearby residents.

They would attempt to “enhance the bones of the building” while retaining its historic character. The developers plan to keep the stained glass windows in the chapel and the the copper turret, and incorporate the Italian marble entrance into the design.

Several current tenants of the building said they were hearing for the first time about the proposed sale of the building.

Several houses around the Loretto are also part of the deal. Comfort said Behringer plans to fix them up and rent them.

On the 3700 block of Washington Street, Thomas S. Moffett and his wife Louise built this home in 1906 (seen here in a recent image). Thomas Moffett died in 1930 and his wife became the first female member of the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange.

Census records from the 3700 block of Washington Street in the Valentine neighborhood show a pattern repeated across Kansas City. In the early 1900s, the owners shared these large homes with extended family members and servants. But by 1930, almost every family had given up its servants and had taken in one or several lodgers.

One example would be 3782 Washington, where livestock commissioner Thomas S. Moffett and his wife Louise lived in 1910, according to census records, with their two sons, a cook, coachman and nurse.

In an early map of the Roanoke subdivision from 1895-1907, much of the property is shown as owned by A.B.H. McGee’s daughter, Nellie G. Nelson.

Thomas owned ranches in Kansas and Oklahoma. Louis’s father was the first lieutenant governor of Kansas. When Mr. Moffett died in 1930, Thomas and Louis were living alone in the home. Louise took control of the Moffett Livestock Commission and became the first woman member of the Kansas City Livestock Commission.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at the 1940 tax assessment photos of each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them).

Before the first decade of 1900, the land was owned by A.B.H. McGee, whose large and well-known home sat at 37th and Broadway. McGee’s daughter Nellie G. Nelson was an early owner of much of the property in the area.

Another early resident included another McGee, A.B.H. McGee Junior. His home at 3758 Washington was built on the site of the famous old barn that stood on the McGee homestead until 1897. It was described as being 80 feet long and 40 feet wide with two-foot thick walls, giving the impression of a fort. The families was said to bury silverware and other valuables their during the border war and Civil War.

In 1910, young McGee ran the Kansas City Packing Box Company. He lived in the home with his wife, three daughters, and two servants.

The McGee family’s neighbors were also extended families with servants, as shown in the 1910 census:

3748 Washington: Sigmund Stulz, a liquor wholesaler; his wife Katherine, two sons and two daughters.

3752 Washington: Everett Riter, an oil producer and his wife Carrie.

3758 Washington: William S.T. Smith, a dentist; his wife Fannie and two sons,; William Preston, chauffeur, and Elizabeth Numink, a maid.

3766 Washington: William Peet of the Peet Brothers Manufacturing Company, a soap factory in Armourdale which became part of Colgate Palmolive; his wife Katherine, two sons, a daughter, and Lena Erwin, a servant.

3772 Washington: Lewis Andrews, a live stock merchant; his wife Elizabeth and niece Ethel Mott; and a servant named Anna Carlson.

3786 Washington: Eunice Gray lived with her son Ellis W. 20, a wire chief for a telephone company; and Luella M. Barton, a roomer.

3788 Washington: Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and her son James, who was in real estate; two other sons and a daughter, and sister Mary Whitney.

By 1930, servants are gone and lodgers have moved in

Reflecting the housing shortage and the diminished role of servants in most Kansas City families, the makeup of this section of Washington had changed 20 years later. Most of the families who had lived there in 1920 were gone. The 1930 census gives this glimpse of the new households:

3700 Washington: Families whose workers included a barber, a bookkeeper, a clerk, and real estate agent had moved into the apartments at the corner of Valentine and Washington.

3712 Washington: Silas Delay, a doctor, and his wife Louise.

3716 Washington: Warren Hooper, a dry goods buyer and his wife Mary shared their home with two lodgers.

3726 Washington: James E. Reede and his wife and two lodgers.

3732 Washington: Frank Horn, his wife Louisa and a lodger.

3740 Washington: Marcus Ford, a dramatic producer, his wife and son.

3744 Washington: Andrew Buchanan, his wife Joyce; their daughter, son-in-law and daughter; and another daughter.

3752 Washington: Elizabeth Coulter, and her two daughters who worked as a mail clerk and a stenographer, shared their home with five lodgers.

3786 Washington: Abner Lee, a railroad conductor, and his wife Isa, a son and a daughter.

3788 Washington: Alvin Randol, a real estate agent and his wife Fannie and four lodgers.

The slideshow below shows the block as it looked in 1940.

Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

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]]>http://midtownkcpost.com/3700-block-of-washington-was-home-to-first-female-livestock-exchange-member/feed/1Do you remember this block of the West Plaza neighborhood?http://midtownkcpost.com/do-you-remember-this-block-of-the-west-plaza-neighborhood/
http://midtownkcpost.com/do-you-remember-this-block-of-the-west-plaza-neighborhood/#respondMon, 16 May 2016 11:00:36 +0000http://midtownkcpost.com/?p=25416

Like many corner stores, this one at W. 47th Street and Holly had been many things through the years. Earliest mention is in 1917, when it was a grocery store. By 1921, it had become a meat market, then served as a clothes pressing establishment before reverting to a grocery store in the mid-1930s. It became a beauty salon in the late 1950s and is still in operation.

In the 1930s and 40s, this West Plaza neighborhood block had a corner grocery store and was home to young working-class families who moved in and out.

A reader turned our attention to the block bounded by Mercier and Holly between 47th and 48th Streets, where, she wrote, she had heard a respected sculptor had once lived and hosted dinner parties for the art scene. Research on the block didn’t turn up his story, but maybe one of our readers can fill in the details.

Meanwhile, where’s what we know about the block.

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is taking a look at the 1940 tax assessment photos of each block in Midtown, including a set of 1940 tax assessment photos which is available for many blocks. (Many people seem confused by the tax assessment photos, which all include a man holding a sign. Here’s the story behind them).

1907 Tuttle and Pike Atlas.

A 1907 map shows the block when it was first being subdivided, but before development really began. Several of the major property owners were well-known Kansas City business and civic leaders who bought parcels of land but never lived on the block. It shows Henry C. Murdock, a civil war veteran, owning the corner of 48th and Mercier. Martha A. Pitcher, a former teacher and an active church volunteer, owned a few plots. George R. Barse, a cattleman who suffered a nasty divorce after he claimed in 1905 that his wife tried to poison him with morphine, also owned land here and in other parts of the city.

By the 1930 census, the block had filled in with working men, their wives and children. Among those listed on the block include:

Residents of Mercier Street

Paul N. Connet, who worked at Broadway Radio Service, his wife Estelle, and two daughters

Eugene Hammer, salesman at a scale company, his wife Ruth, a daughter and a son

Power house engineer Albert Schwerin, his wife and two sons

Eddie Johnson, a printer, and his wife Daisy

Residents of 48th Street

Charles Borel, a watch maker, his wife, daughter, and son-in-law

Chester Suggs, a switchman on the railroad, his wife and daughter

Ralph Wilsey, a paper hanger, his wife and son

Residents of 47th Street

Railroad clerk George R. Hoagland, wife and three daughters

Building contractor Frank A. Baken, his wife, two daughters, and a son

George Reade, a club grounds keeper, his wife, son, three daughters, and brother-in-law.

Residents of Holly Street

Francis F. Green, railroad switchman, his wife and two sons

Leonard M. Hogan, a clerk

Arthur Moore, jewelry salesman, and his wife

Another jewelry salesman, Stephen J. Smith, his wife and daughter.

Butler Morris, a railroad conductor, and his wife Esther.

Ten years later in 1940 (the last year for which census records are currently public), most of the 1930s residents had left. The new residents, mostly young families with one or more children, either rented or owned their homes. The homes along 47th Street were all occupied by widowed women. The block also was home to a city policeman, a cattle salesman, the operator of a bar in the street railway, and an auto mechanic.

The slideshow below shows the block as it looked in 1940.

Historic photos courtesy Kansas City Public Library/Missouri Valley Special Collections.

Do you have memories or more details about this area of Midtown? Please share them with our readers. Would you like us to focus on your block next week? Send us an email.

Our book, Kansas City’s Historic Midtown Neighborhoods, is available now. Let us know if you want us to come to your neighborhood association or organization’s meeting to share what we’ve learned about Midtown neighborhood history and tell your members how they can help preserve Midtown history. If you’d like to order the book, email Mary Jo Draper at mjdraper@midtownkcpost.com.

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]]>http://midtownkcpost.com/do-you-remember-this-block-of-the-west-plaza-neighborhood/feed/0Plaza area hotel, apartments and retail project moves forwardhttp://midtownkcpost.com/plaza-area-hotel-apartments-and-retail-project-moves-forward/
http://midtownkcpost.com/plaza-area-hotel-apartments-and-retail-project-moves-forward/#respondThu, 12 May 2016 11:00:16 +0000http://midtownkcpost.com/?p=25405The council planning and zoning committee on Wednesday approved a compromise for eight-story hotel and apartment buildings just north of the Country Club Plaza.

The rezoning of 1.5 acres goes to the full council today for final approval.

The project is generally on part of a block bound by Broadway, W. 46th Street, W. 46th Terrace and Wornall Road.

In this compromise version, it would include 132 hotel rooms, 175 apartment units and about 35,000 square feet of ground level retail and restaurant space.

The original project calling for a 13-story and 12-story building stalled after opposition. After the height reductions and other changes, the City Plan Commission approved it last month.

Neighbors spoke in favor of it Wednesday before the council committee, with reservations.

Tom Davis, a condo owner in the area, noted that the reduced project was approved under the old area plan before the new Midtown Plaza area plan.

The project by Plaza Hotels LLC was grandfathered in under the old plan because it was in the works before the new one was passed.

Davis and other neighbors said any future development must follow the new plan.

And some other developers, eager to pile high density apartments in the area, will see the approval of this project as an opening, he said.

“This is going to be an invitation to come in and ask for the sky,” Davis said, and neighbors and city officials must hang tough with the new plan.